Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The cook in me

I always thought I hated cooking, but when I started building a life together with my husband in Hyderabad, I discovered my passion for cooking. I found myself searching for recipes, wanting to cook, watching cookery shows, trying to innovate. It is like I discovered a whole new world. Well, the fact that my mother is an exceptional cook and I have always eaten good food helped me in this new found hobby :).

Food is such an elixir for the soul, whether it's a happy occasion or someone is broken hearted. It always helps to eat something good. So knowing how to cook good food is indeed important. Eating involves most of the five senses, sight, smell (most important to me), and touch. I feel the same while cooking food. When the right ingredients come together to generate a nice aroma and start looking good, I get the high.

If you ask 'Why do you cook?', I will say I cook for myself, to help myself on my bad days and to celebrate my good days. That's my therapy. Somewhere down the line it got extended to creating something which I think is very nice and wanting to know whether others feel the same. So I also cooked for my friends and family. And guess what, they were too kind and always encouraged me. But I still cook to satisfy myself and myself only ;-). And the type of food I have always enjoyed cooking is Bengali cuisine. The variety in taste and ingredients used in Bengali cuisine creates a vast canvas to experiment on. I think I should start writing about my cooking experiences.

Recently on my vacation to Kumarakom, Kerala, the dishes I enjoyed most are fish cooked with raw mango and tempered yogurt. Will definitely be cooking them soon and writing about them.